With dueling quilts, of course, from 25 different states.
Archives for March 16, 2014
How Actor Maximilian Schell Made A Career – And Saved The Soul Of Germany
“Every burden of postwar Europe is reflected in the face of Maximilian Schell. For the curious career of Maximilian Schell was not about re-creating the past. It was about those who were trying to survive in its aftermath.”
Top Posts From AJBlogs 03.16.14
The economic impact of everything
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-03-17
Kids And Museums: A Few Words
AJBlog: Real Clear Arts | Published 2014-03-17
The future of nonprofits?
AJBlog: For What it’s Worth | Published 2014-03-17
The H Word
AJBlog: We The Audience | Published 2014-03-16
Conductor fails to block biography
AJBlog: Slipped Disc | Published 2014-03-16
The Faster You Die, The More Popular The Video Game
“Apparently life isn’t tough enough for those of us who seek amusement in failure’s premiere form of entertainment. Taxes, relationships and health troubles not stressful enough? Play an arduous video game that you’ll fail at in seconds. Millions of people do.”
By The Way, Rosebud Was … An Indicator Of The Value Of Spoilers
“There has to be a statute of limitations established; and we have to stop being over-precious as well, because this spoiler sensitivity is really revoltingly self-centred. Personally, I’m always asking people about films, and I now have to tell a lie (‘No, I’ll never see it. What happens?’) – just to get the goods.”
American Ballet To Lose Its New York ‘Nutcracker’
“Brooklyn’s loss, though, will be California’s gain: The production will go west in 2015 to begin an annual run at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, Calif., where snowflakes — of both the onstage and offstage variety — are considerably rarer.”
Music Can Save Your Life – Just Ask Cyndi Lauper And David Byrne
“Music and performing was my way of getting through that, and it healed me in some ways. You perform in front of people and get your feelings out, and then you can retreat again and be your private person.”
Why Is Hollywood So Obsessed With Doppelgängers Lately?
“Our active pursuit of our own doppelgängers, though, would strike many throughout history as odd, if not suicidal: Encountering your match has long been considered a harbinger of death, or at least very bad luck. We all have a double in the world, the mythology goes, and most of us will never meet that person. But if we do, the universe only has space for one.”
Mitch Leigh, Who Wrote ‘Man of La Mancha,’ Dead At 86
“Mitch Leigh, the Brooklyn-born son of a Jewish furrier from Ukraine, had no theater experience to speak of. All he had ever done was compose incidental music for a couple of short-lived Broadway comedies — “Too True to Be Good” (1963) and “Never Live Over a Pretzel Factory” (1964).”
Italian Police Say There’s Hope For A Klimt Painting Stolen 17 Years Ago
“The oil painting, believed to date from 1916-1917, was stolen from the Ricci-Oddi gallery in Piacenza in February 1997 and disappeared without a trace. Now, thanks to more sophisticated testing of the frame, investigators are hoping that new test results will provide a DNA match with one or more suspects.”
Apparently No One Wants To See ‘The Full Monty’ Anymore
“The play about unemployed steelworkers who turn to stripping opened at the Noel Coward Theatre in London on February 25 and will stage its last performance on March 29. It had been due to run until mid-June.”
In Greece, Nobody (Except The Government) Wants To Sell Off Famous Greek Buildings Near The Acropolis
“Furious opponents marched through the city centre at the weekend to denounce the ‘illegal sale’ of the country’s heritage. More than four years into debt-stricken Greece’s prolonged economic crisis, many described the step as the height of humiliation for a nation already hit by excoriating austerity and record levels of poverty and unemployment.”
Tonight Show’s Record-Setting Funny Guest Dies At 78
David Brenner “was a frequent guest on game shows and talk shows throughout his career. And long before Chris Rock and Dennis Miller were getting HBO specials, Brenner had four of his own — even getting married on one.”
Would Plato Tweet About His Lunch? (Hint: Unlikely)
“What can we do to give our lives a moreness that will help withstand the eons of time that will soon cover us over, blotting out the fact that we ever existed at all? Really, why did we bother to show up for our existence in the first place? The Greek speakers were as obsessed with this question as we are.”
The Americans Are Coming! Disney Invades The UK
Well, the Disney Channel, anyway, filming for the first time a live action production there. See, there’s this teenager, and this country manor, and … a magical tapestry, of course.
Rethinking Documentaries, With A Creative Drive
“Every time you are getting ready to make a shot in a documentary film, you are asking yourself questions about your cinematographic approach. You are approaching the truth, but the image is never the truth itself.”
Wait, What If Uptalk Is Just A Normal Way For Millennials To Speak Now?
“Young women — surrounded in every other part of their lives by women who talk just like they do — are increasingly responding to mentors, teachers, and bosses who try to help them overcome these vocal habits by, as Ratner did, arguing that they shouldn’t have to change for society. Society should change for them. People should learn that asking questions and using uptalk is a sign of caring what the other person thinks, not of submissiveness.”
The ‘Eiffel Tower of Russia’ Is Going To Be Destroyed
“Commissioned by Lenin and completed in 1922, the tower was intended to spread the word of Communism through the new radio technology and to stand for the regime’s revolutionary ambition.”
How E-readers (And Commissioned Short Books) Teach People To Read
“The potential impact of technology on less confident readers is tremendous,” especially when the people in charge of helping adults learning to read (or learning English) commission short books from actual writers.
Why Hungary’s New Law Is So Terrible For Photographers (That Is, Everyone)
“From 15 March anyone taking photographs in Hungary is technically breaking the law if someone wanders into shot, under a new civil code that outlaws taking pictures without the permission of everyone in the photograph.”
Google’s Anti-Copyright Stance Isn’t Cool – It Hurts Artists
“It’s so absurd that Google is still presenting itself as the lovable geek who’s the friend of the young everyman. Don’t kid yourself, kids: Google is the establishment.”
War, Secret Love, Death – Keys To Tove Jansson’s Moomintrolls
“You could read this as being the lesbian love between Tove and Vivicka. They have their secret love in this suitcase, and when they open the suitcase and show it to the whole of Moominvalley it is also a picture of how they show their love to the world. It’s a really beautiful story.”
How Come There Aren’t Books About, And For, African-American Kids?
“Where are the future white personnel managers going to get their ideas of people of color? Where are the future white loan officers and future white politicians going to get their knowledge of people of color? Where are black children going to get a sense of who they are and what they can be?”
Even The Bark Can Be Faked, If Location Scouts Want Something Different
“The city/county of Los Angeles is essentially Hollywood’s biggest backlot, and that brings with it certain attendant privileges and headaches. Symbolically, it means that L.A. is often asked to represent both itself and other places.”
Heirs Of Peggy Guggenheim Sue New York Foundation
“They are calling for the revocation of Peggy Guggenheim’s donation to the foundation because of the organisation’s ‘failure to comply with the conditions under which it was granted'” – not to mention the accusation that the foundation is desecrating her grave.
Should Actors Say Goodbye To California?
“If you’re having trouble getting in rooms in L.A. and you’re open to moving, or you have some sort of connection to the Southeast, then you’re better off moving to a hub like New Orleans or Atlanta and taking advantage of this market.”
How Martha Graham Saved One Young Dancer’s Life (Well, Career)
Lloyd Mayor: “The work was really talking about shame and empathy and vulnerability, and they are not to be romanticized.”
The Entertainment Industry Begs For Money To Keep Movies And TV In California
“‘It’s no longer our birthright as Californians to expect the film industry is going to stay here,’ Independent Studio Services founder and event co-host Greg Bilson said to the crowd. ‘We have to have incentives that are going to make us competitive with other states.'”
Changes In Production Make The Small Screen Even More Appealing For Big-Screen Stars And Directors
“True Detective is a forerunner of a new era in TV drama. Writer-producer shows such as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and The Wire may slowly give way to the director-led format.”
Join A Choir, Become A Better Human Being?
“Singing in a choir is a transcendent experience – and there aren’t many of those in life. It instills gratitude and bliss without the contortions of yoga or hangovers of alcohol.”